An electrostatic atomizing device has been known, for instance, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-68711, and is configured to apply high-voltage to the water that has been supplied to an atomization electrode, thereby generating negatively-charged minute water particles of nanometer sizes.
The charged minute water particles generated by the electrostatic atomizing device are emitted to a space. The emitted charged minute water particles are suspended within the space, and then come into contact with odor components, bacteria, allergenic materials and the like suspended within the space, thereby adhering to those. Or the emitted charged minute water particles come into contact with an inner wall in the space and substances existing in the space, thereby adhering to those.
As described above, the emitted charged minute water particles adheres to targets, and then radicals included in the emitted charged minute water particles deodorize and sterilize the targets, and inactivate the allergenic materials.
However, in the conventional electrostatic atomizing device, only a small percentage of the countless charged minute water particles emitted and suspended within the space incidentally comes into contact with the odor components, bacteria, and allergenic materials suspended within the space, or the inner wall in the space and the substances existing in the space, thereby adhering to those.
Further, the odor components, bacteria and allergenic materials, or the inner wall in the space and the substances existing in the space may be positively-charged or negatively-charged. In this case, the negatively-charged minute water particles are pulled and adheres, through action of the electrical attraction, with respect to the positively-charged odor components, bacteria, and allergenic materials. However, the negatively-charged minute water particles electrically repel the negatively-charged odor components, bacteria, and allergenic materials, and thereby can not adhere to those.
Accordingly, in the conventional electrostatic atomizing device, there is a problem that a very small percentage of the charged minute water particles emitted to the space adheres to the odor components, bacteria, and allergenic materials suspended within the space, or the inner wall in the space and the substances existing in the space.